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The Daily Practice
Some progress is happening.
I'm almost a month into my latte art practice (the class I took was in February 22) and it's been a really bumpy road. I'm still stuck with my Breville while I wait for my new machine, which I believe is still 8 weeks away. I've been too spoiled by this two-day shipping capitalist society to put this in any other way: the wait is killing me.
Today, I hit sort of a breakthrough in that I was able to do some successful pours in my 6oz cups. My struggle has been controlling how much milk flows out of my jug when I pour. Today was the first time I actually felt in control of it somewhat.
I know that I should be sticking with 12oz cups or bigger as a beginner, but I really only make coffee for myself and what I like to drink are cortados and flat whites. Bobby's been off caffeine for a while, so my main opportunities for practice are my morning coffees and fikas.
I also found Emilee Bryant's YouTube channel and watched a few videos. She's a latte art pro who's really good at explaining things. This effort feels moot though knowing I'll have to start from scratch in two months learning my new machine. But it still boosts my morale seeing my slight improvements.
Matcha
I've never had or made one before, but I wanted to try.
I have a weird bias against tea for no reason other than I didn't grow up drinking it. On the other hand, Bobby loves all kinds of tea, including matcha. One of the reasons I got so deep into latte art is because of my desire to throw a coffee shop party at my house (it's where we pretend we're a cafe, except everything's free for our friends and family). I thought about my friends who don't really like coffee, but like tea. I need to have something on the menu for them.
Enter matcha. Armed with some high quality matcha powder and a whisking set, I made my first matcha latte for Bobby. Coincidentally, it was also St. Patrick's Day.
I take every opportunity to drink out of this gorgeous vessel by Ginny Sims. It brings so much joy.
The whisking part was surprisingly tough on my arms. Once I saw the promising froth, I steamed some milk and poured. I served it nervously to Bobby who responded with, "Perfect. Right on the money." Hell yeah. I took a sip as well and I actually quite liked it. Maybe I'll start drinking matcha.
The Machine or Me?
Can I do latte art with my cheap machine?
Three weeks ago, I signed up for latte art classes at the only local cafe that offers it in my city. Apparently, before the COVID-era, at least three other shops offered barista classes. But right now, this is the only option in the area which is kinda crazy to think about because I live in a major city.
I went in with the purpose of learning the basic principles of steaming and pouring milk that I could then take home with me to keep practicing. It was a two-hour class with a maximum of 2 students. To my luck, the other student was a no-show so I got an incredible 1-on-1 experience. I also begged him to teach me with oat milk because it's what I use at home. The class was great! The barista was incredibly thorough. And perhaps because I was the only student, he didn't mind answering dozens of questions. I went from doing blobs to actually doing tulips in just under two hours. It was pretty encouraging.
Then I went home to my Breville machine and could not reproduce any of it, while following the same things I learned in class. Turns out, the steaming power of my machine compared to the La Marzocco machine at the cafe requires some significant technique adjustments on my part. It was a bummer, but three weeks (and many cartons of oat milk) later, and I feel like I'm getting the hang of my machine's limitations. Just in time for my new one to come in.
Some of my more successful pours
I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it even with less than ideal gear. The inconsistency was very frustrating, plus the inability to do back to back milk drinks, which is what I want to do when I host people at my house. The steam wand, after 3-4 consecutive cups of coffee, needed rest or it would just not work anymore so it wasn't possible to do a long practice session. It also clogged incredibly easily regardless of how diligent I was about purging.
So despite "figuring it out" with my Breville, I'm extremely excited for my new one to come in. In the end, my conclusion is this: yes, skills matter more than the gear, but it wouldn't hurt to be better equipped.
